Kangaroo Courts and Self Righteous Social Engineering

Wow! I just spent two hours in witness of genuine and worthy praise of the successes achieved at Sequoia, our local public high school, then saw that same body express a 5-1 lack of support for an even more successful program, simply because it is a charter school. False information, politically motivated maneuvering to meet the lowest requirements allowable and sheer stubborness on the part of 5 school board members prevented the passing of a motion for the board to consider a reasonable proposal for the provision of a facility to house the new State-approved charter school, Everest.
And the quote of the night came from Lorraine Rumley who actually said she supported the District's proposal to offer Everest a one year campus comprised of portable units located in East Palo Alto because, (I paraphrase) "sending the Everest students to East Palo Alto would be a wonderful gift to that community, to show them how involved parents and motivated students can create an example for that community."
Is it just me, or does that kind of thinking smack of social engineering and, uh prejudice?
Oh, and who can forget that the same board member along with Gordon Lewin commented on how beautiful the campus will be, based on the architectural renderings. Yeah, a few illustrated MATURE trees and shrubs sure can dress up 7 portable structures that don't meet the required space and usage needs determined by the State of California. Not to mention that It's a fantastic idea to put a new high school in an area that has a murder rate 3.67 times the national average instead of one that has a murder rate 0.35 times the national average. Yeah, That'll show them East Palo Alto types how to act!
I'm not sure I have the stomach for local, petty politics, but something has to be done to bring the close-minded elected officials into the 21st century. Sorry to break the news to you schoolboard folks. But the genie is out of the bottle. The plain fact is that there are now several models of education success and we need a school board who is willing to find a way to support success wherever it can be found, not just in the programs that renovate the "traditional" high school programs.
Redwood City is blessed to have a motivated base of teachers and administrators in our high schools and charter schools. Both models are reversing the long trend of school systems that have failed far too many students over the years. It's time to wholly support success wherever it can be found. It's also time for a school board who understands that.

awesome webamagig from GE at http://ping.fm/nq6Da
check it out! Print and play with Flash 10.

Just archived 45GB off my hard drive...found several forgotten examples of good motion graphics and viral video - one of the older but goodies can be seen here http://ping.fm/cDC7Q

almost ready to debug the new Santana Row Blog - great articles, features and inside scoopage for SR Shoppers!

just set up ping.fm "not slow on the uptake, just has been lower on the priority list", he says defensively

Just goes to show, you don't have to be a genius.

Alright, I commented earlier this week on my buddy Dave's blog that we can look forward to the Obama Administration using the web as a direct-to-the-people communications platform. Today the Associated Press released an article with the same point  of view. I'm not crowing here, just pointing to the wonderful Change that is happening. This change in particular is the web effect finally getting to the political and governmental process.

The promise of the web from it's earliest public application has been the "democratization of content and information, and the power that goes with it." Ironically, nearly twenty years later, we have the literal Democratization of the political process and the ultimate in political power given to the man who was smart enough to embrace the web.

Read the referenced article. I love the quote about how Republicans will be watching for "White House web outreach that appears overly political." Gang, you know the beauty of the web is that you can build your own audience and reach out directly to them too. Better yet, look for a bipartisan approach that directly involves every American, regardless of political party to engage in the political process, and see just what is being done to move our great country into the better economic and world standing. Another irony that it takes a "community organizer" rather than an "Experienced Executive" to leverage the web to organize us into a nationwide community. Gee Rudy, I guess that's what they do!

Social Media and Business transparency

I can't help but wonder if social media can have a tempering effect on business and social practices. Your social circle wields a lot of influence. Apply social media and you have an even greater reach and frequency. Those of us who look at Social Media as a business tool embrace it to inform, influence and, in the best cases, generate new products and profit for our companies. In a very real sense, smart companies are letting themselves be influenced by their customers to great mutual benefit.

Can wider adoption of social media empower the public to be the non-governmental regulators? Can't an active and vocal customer and public constituency also create a dampening effect on poor policies and practices? I'm no financial pundit by any means (ask my wife), however it seems like now there are all sorts of experts who have come forward to deride the kind of financial derivatives that have contributed to the current financial meltdown. Where were these guys while these "bets on bets of bets" were being created? There must have been a lot of folks watching, talking, playing, predicting within the financial industry. If these industry people were blogging, tweeting, discussing the pros and cons, would it have effected the direction of the market or the creation of these products?

Hobbes (yeah, remember your college Political Science?) held that the government needed to exist to help keep the "leviathan" of man's true nature in line. I wonder if a more connected, social society would be an effective way to temper man's true nature, one component of which is greed.

Look at it this way. Most people try to be reasonable about cause and effect. We recycle, reuse, reduce for good reason. And we do so because it's easy, but, and let's be honest, right now there is a significant social component to recycling. What would you think of someone who completely shunned recycling?

Well, would we feel the same about unfettered, more public, greed?

Would widespread adoption of social media create a similar effect on greed and the creation of financial instruments that are so esoteric as to really only be understood by and benefit the few?

If the voice and reason of the many were expressed, would the same financial products have been created, or would the consumer constituents have informed a better product line for these companies?

I just wonder.